Tears as Becky accused recalls final moments

Nathan Mathews broke down in tears as he described the moment he noticed his step-sister Becky Watts’ heart had stopped beating.

Hunched over the witness box on his first day giving evidence, he hung his head and wept after explaining how his plan to kidnap her and put her in a bag went wrong and Becky stopped breathing.

“That’s when I noticed something not right. I checked her pulse and she didn’t have a pulse,” he said as he became overwhelmed with emotion and some of Watts’ family left the courtroom in tears.

Matthews is charged alongside his girlfriend Shauna Hoare of murdering the 16-year-old at her home in Crown Hill, St George, before dismembering her body in Barton Hill, where it was later hidden in a shed.

Matthews was called to the stand as the defence opened its case in the trial at Bristol Crown Court. But within minutes he was in tears as the charges against him were read out again.

He was asked if he intended to kill Becky. “No,” he replied before sobbing loudly in front of the jury.

The court then went through Matthews’ history and the 28-year-old settled himself as he explained his upbringing and adult life to the jury.

Matthews was then asked to recall February 20 when he went to Becky’s home to kidnap her and “teach her a lesson” for the way she treated his mother.

Arriving to Becky’s home with a bag, Sellotape, a mask, a stun gun and handcuffs, he went to her bedroom and opened the door.

“Straight away I used the sellotape around her mouth,” he said. “I was following the plan.

“She turned around and I think I said something along the lines of ‘as long as you do what you are told you will be fine’.”

He said he concealed his identity with the mask and by “using a deep voice”. He then handcuffed her and attempted to put her in the bag, but she resisted and his mask slipped from his face.

“At that point I took the mask off and sellotaped around her eyes. That was when I put my fingers on her nose to restrict her breathing so she would pass out.

He added: “It wasn’t working. I had my hand on top of the Sellotape but it wouldn’t work. I said ‘look, don’t struggle, you are going to be released unharmed’. But she was still refusing to get in the bag.”

He said he put his hands either side of her neck to stop the blood flow so she would pass out. “And that’s when she stopped kicking,” he said.

He added: “Something didn’t seem right about her breathing. That’s when I thought something wasn’t right so I checked for a pulse and she didn’t have a pulse. I then shut the suitcase.”

He said he took the bag downstairs into his car while Hoare was in the garden smoking and acted normally at the house until Becky’s father came home.

He said he came up with a plan to dismember the body so nobody would find out what happened to Becky. He insisted he acted alone, without Hoare.

The body was then stored in the shed of a neighbour’s house in Barton Court. Matthews said he offered a friend £10,000 to look after something as he feared his house would be searched.

Matthews denies murdering Watts, but admits manslaughter. He also denies conspiracy to kidnap. Hoare pleads not guilty to both charges.

Donovan Demetrius, 29, of March Lane, Redfield, and James Ireland, 23, of Richmond Villas, Avonmouth, pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender by “removing, storing in various bags the body parts of Rebecca Watts”.

Donovan’s brother Karl Demitrius, 29, and his partner Jaydene Parsons, 23, both of Barton Court, have admitted assisting an offender.

The case continues.